The 35-year-old Northampton resident has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, with 18 months to serve and the balance suspended during a five-year probation.

Farak was arrested in January 2013 after co-workers at the Amherst lab told police drugs were missing.

Farak's case is not connected to that of former chemist Annie Dookhan, who worked at a state drug lab in Boston. Dookhan admitted faking test results in criminal cases, jeopardizing thousands of convictions. She was sentenced in November to at least three years in prison.

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